Working with & for Young People in Museums

Guest Blog: Mindspot – Make It Your Library in Denmark

By Lisbeth Mærkedahl, Librarian and Coordinator for Mindspot, Aarhus, Denmark

How do we involve young people in our program?

In The Main Library in Aarhus, Denmark we work with the questions above. We want to turn the library into a relevant and interesting partner in the lives of young people (between 14 and 25 years old). We want to be a creator of opportunities and an initiator of conversations. To do that we realized, that we needed to hire young people (mindspotters).

Our intention is to involve young people in the whole process from the idea-generating over the planning to the execution. And we want the library to be the producer and the young ones to be the innovators and performers.

We have done a lot of activities fx:

– AFTRYK

A portrait book of young people in our town – made by mindspotters and volunteers

– Tattoo at Den Grimmeste Festival

Try to tattoo on pigskin. Creativeness arise when context and materials are new and different

– AUSFAHRT 12’

8 concerts around in the city from a van bed – with one winner band

– Information seeking and retrieval

Visit school classes and do exercise with them – with roots in their needs

– Workshops fx scratch, drawing and cup cakes

The outcome for the library is manifold;

– External partners and branding

– Engagement, professionalism and constant challenges for the employees